34 pages • 1 hour read
Mulk Raj AnandUntouchable
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1935A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Page 121-157Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Page 121-157 Summary
Colonel Hutchinson, chief of the local Salvation Army, sees Bakha. He approaches and puts a hand on his shoulder, saying, "Tum udas" (123), which means "you are sad." Bakha feels honored that the Englishman has spoken to him in Hindustani. Hutchinson is a Christian and tries to explain that he does not view himself as one of the upper castes. He invites Bakha to attend church with him so that he can see that there are places where he will be treated as an equal. As they walk, Hutchinson sings Christian hymns. Bakha asks him to explain the concept of Jesus to him, but does not understand what the man means when he says, "He died that we might be forgiven" (127). He is further confused when Hutchinson says that his God is not the God of the white men, but of everyone. Soon Bakha is bored by the singing and confusing answers. His patience ends when Hutchinson tells him that they are all born sinners, because Bakha does not believe that he was born with sin.
On the steps of the church, Hutchinson's wife begins to shout at her husband, berating him for bringing a "blackie" (132) to church. She continues to insult Hutchinson and Bakha until Bakha leaves, humiliated. Bakha walks without thinking about where he is going and arrives at a train station called Bulashah. There is a crowd gathered by a platform. When a train arrives, the people shout, "The Mahatma has come!" (135). He realizes that he is running, because "The word 'Mahatma' was like a magical magnet to which he, like all the other people about him, rushed blindly" (136). There are men, women, and children there of various ethnicities and religions. Bakha wants to join the thousands of people, but "there was an insuperable barrier between himself and the crowd, the barrier of caste" (137).
Bakha thinks about all of the rumors he has heard about Gandhi. Some people claim that he is a saint. Others say that he will overthrow the government. All around him people argue about who Gandhi is, and what causes they believe that he supports.
A motorcar arrives and Gandhi steps out and takes the platform. Bakha sees "something beautiful and saintly in the face" (143). The crowd begins to chant Gandhi's name. Gandhi prays and the crowd is quiet. Bakha's attention wanders during the prayer, and "It irked him to see everyone so serious. The silence was getting on his nerves" (145).
Gandhi begins a lengthy speech and says that he "shall only speak about the so-called 'Untouchables' whom the government tried to alienate from Hinduism by giving them a separate and political status" (146). He tells several stories about the mistreatment of Untouchables that gave rise to his interest in the cause. Gandhi concludes by saying that if the crowd loves him, they must follow his example and stop taking the rotten leavings of the upper castes. They must demand that the public wells be open to all. And they must continue to strive to improve their spiritual lives. Bakha is enthralled by the talk. He has never heard anyone speak compassionately about Untouchables.
When the speech ends, Bakha listens to the discussion around him. He hears two educated men debating opposite sides of Gandhi's arguments. One man, a poet, believes that Untouchability is a blight on India and one of the greatest impediments to progress. He also believes that it is in direct opposition to Hinduism itself. The other man is a lawyer. He argues that traditions always win, and that the type of reform Gandhi proposes is both naïve and irrational. Bakha is not able to understand all of the words that the men use, but he is galvanized by the passion with which they speak. He is most interested in the poet's mention that flushing toilets will soon come to India. Untouchables are the only ones permitted to touch waste, which is why Bakha must clean the latrines. But the introduction of flushing toilets will mean that the lower castes will not have to do the work, prompting new questions about their status and duties.
Bakha walks home, "torn between his enthusiasm for Gandhi and the difficulties in his own awkward, naïve self" (157). When he gets home, he plans to tell his father about the speech. One day he hopes to be able to talk to the poet and ask him more questions about the flushing toilet.
Page 121-157 Analysis
Colonel Hutchison's appearance is noteworthy in that he notices Bakha's sadness and acts accordingly. Bakha is moved when Hutchison mentions that he is sad. Bakha is used to being ignored, and during the day, when he is not being ignored, he is being abused. Hutchison is a respected white man who wears pants, and the fact that he is willing to speak to Bakha in Hindustani briefly raises Bakha's spirits again. Hutchison represents here the appearance of magnanimity the English bring to India.
As a Christian missionary, Hutchison's remedy for sadness is to worship Christ and attend church. Bakha is initially enthusiastic about the invitation, but quickly grows bored of Hutchison's sermon. He is particularly agitated by Hutchison's insistence that they are all sinners. Bakha knows that he has not committed any sins. He has tried to go about his day, doing his duty, and not bothering anyone. But this has resulted in him being treated as a sinner, a parasite, and a pollutant. Bakha does not want to be placed in a position where he is required to seek forgiveness for sins he is not guilty of.
Hutchison's claim that his God is the God of all men, not just of the whites, appeals to Bakha in that it suggests a system of equality. But when he meets Hutchison's wife, she is racist and ignorant, forbidding her husband to bring Bakha to their church. Hutchison’s apparent high-mindedness is revealed to be racist, in that whites tend not to see castes in India because everyone there is “brown” and therefore of one ilk. The fact that they see Bakha as equal to a Brahmin is actually no better than Brahmins seeing him as a pollutant. This final contradiction is more than Bakha can tolerate, leading him to wander towards the train station where he will hear Gandhi's speech.
By the time Gandhi arrives in Bakha's town, he had already become a legendary figure, as well as a polarizing one. Bakha is excited to hear him speak, but he is confused by the conversations he overhears. As many people seem to love Gandhi as hate him. Some express that he is brilliant and necessary, and others say that he is ignorant and will only lead the Untouchables to greater trouble.
Bakha has a hard time paying attention to all of Gandhi's speech. He enjoys and is inspired by Gandhi's insistence that the caste system must be done away with, but simultaneously realizes that he is uneducated to the point where he cannot understand everything Gandhi says. He also does not understand why Gandhi says the Untouchables must improve themselves if they want the respect of the upper Hindus, because Bakha does not understand how he is supposed to improve himself, given his limited options.
He is encouraged by the varied nature of the crowd, however. Despite that fact that Gandhi is speaking about Untouchable rights—an inflammatory subject—his audience at the train station comprises people of all classes and colors. It is the conversation between the poet and the attorney that affects Bakha the most, however. The two educated men debate the merits of Gandhi's claims. The poet believes change is essential and the caste system must be eradicated. The attorney believes that the change is impossible, and that traditions that have persisted as long as the caste system cannot be overthrown by reform.
But it is not the debate that affects Bakha, who is not educated enough to comprehend most of the rhetoric. It is the poet's mention that the flushing toilet will be coming to their village. Regardless of Hindu doctrine, the existence of the Untouchable class serves a practical (if ludicrously unfair) purpose: to dispose of human refuse on behalf of upper Hindus who are not allowed to touch human waste. In light of the flushing toilet, the Untouchable class will no longer have work to do, whether decreed by divinity or by the upper castes.
It is this thought of something as simple as a flushing toilet that gives Bakha the greatest hope in the novel. As he goes home, he realizes that he is anxious to share the poet's news with his father. Although the caste system would not be legally abolished until 1950, the novel ends on an optimistic note. Bakha has good news and wants to spread it to the people he cares about: his family.
